A mad man's prank
by fantaicy
Summary: ONESHOT: Uther is going mad, but no-one knows this yet and after some inspiration he decided to make his own prank on a certain warlock.


**Uther's story**

Uther liked to be feared. It made him feel powerful - Extremely powerful. Too bad Gaius didn't think so no matter how much power Uther had. In fact, Uther constantly tired to prove his power to Gaius in many different ways but none of them seemed to work. He needed a new plan...

He tried many and every time more and more people grew to resent the old king and we all know he went a bit mad near to his death. But this was before everyone started to notice so naturally the king was still allowed to roam the castle as he pleased.

A mad king should never be allowed to do this and although Gaius was having his doubts he let it slide – silly Gaius.

One morning, Uther sat by his window, stared down at the busy streets below and watched as the peasants went about their daily life. A young boy placed something small on the ground and disappeared behind a barrel, his head poking out over the top. Uther watched as someone stepped on it and exclaimed in shock. The boy stood up, laughing before running away again.

"What a strange trick," Uther said to himself; Another sign of his growing madness as he was one of those people who like to think to themselves rather than speak. He would often mock anyone he caught in the act of speaking to themselves (he didn't realise he spoke to himself).

This gave Uther an idea. A mad idea that should never be given to a mad man such as Uther.

Uther watched from a safe distance as he watched a knight walk down the corridor. The knight was humming to himself and wondering what his wife would be cooking for dinner when suddenly-

"OW!" The knight exclaimed in shock as he inspected what he had stood on. It was a sharp stone that Uther had found outside. Uther let out a small chuckle and returned to his room to pick up another stone. He had collected many stones from outside in anticipation to hurt a lot of people's feet. Ha.

After the tenth stone incident, it was only natural for people to grow suspicious and look at where they were putting ones feet.

_Looks like the stone joke was short lived_, Uther thought (spoke) to himself. He decided to look out of his window again for some inspiration once more.

Unfortunately, nothing of interest was happening. Uther was going to have to come up with something himself!

**Rule number one: Never let a mad man with such power be allowed to think of their own jokes to pull on people. Especially when said mad man has a cruel sense of humour.**

He never realised how fun this was to do – He would've done this ages ago if knew of the fun he could have!

Uther was currently sitting in the throne room waiting for Arthur's servant to arrive. He had summoned the court and was going to accuse Merlin of sorcery then release him just before the execution and say 'FOOLED YOU!'

Arthur was standing beside him asking him what was going on but Uther simply ignored him much to the prince's annoyance.

Uther was busy imagining everyone's reaction at seeing Merlin dragged in by knights.

He briefly wondered if he should consider getting a hobby but decided against it once Merlin was dragged in by two knights. Excellent!

Uther saw Gaius raise his eyebrow to extortionate heights at the sight of the servant and many other people gasp.

"Father! What do you think you're doing! That's my servant!" Arthur protested at once, seeing the boy.

Uther simply ignored him and stared coldly into Merlin's eyes getting into his role.

"Merlin, I am accusing you of sorcery and you will be sentenced to execution in a day."

Gasps sounded from all around the room and Uther inwardly grinned – he truly loved dramatics. As a young boy he had wanted to be a performer before realising what a silly idea that was and embraced being a king but that's another story.

"_FATHER_." Arthur protested louder this time and Uther ignored him again.

The boy didn't say a word as he paled and allowed the knights to drag him to the dungeons where of course all sentenced people went.

"YOU CAN'T DO THIS! HE'S INNOCENT!" Arthur continued to protest standing in front of Uther making wild hand gestures as he spoke a lengthy unneeded speech on how Merlin couldn't do magic and was hardly useful without magic.

_Well, obviously, he's a terrible servant. _Uther thought (once again, he spoke this)

"I'm sorry, Arthur. It had to be done." Uther finally spoke growing tired of his sons protest.

"HE CAN'T DO MAGIC." He stormed out in anger and Uther let him.

Uther relaxed in his throne as the court was dismissed and wondered who else he could sentence.

_No. Better stick to just one person for now_, he thought (we both know he spoke this) He walked back to his room to gaze out the window in hopes of another joke to manifest in front of him but again, nothing happened.

Arthur briefly arrived with his knights to try and prove Merlin's innocence but Uther simply told them to go away.

He grew curious as to how such noble knights and his own son could care for such a lowly servant and wondered if killing the boy was just easier for everyone.

_That isn't a joke then._ He reminded himself and he sighed.

Now you should remember that Uther was a fan of pain and it was going to be hard to let Merlin go in the morning when he'd happily let him die. _But a true trickster never overdoes it._

At dinner, his son wouldn't talk to him and Uther decided to entertain himself by imagining everyone's faces when he decided not to kill Merlin? Oh how they will gasp!

Uther began to grin wickedly which didn't go unnoticed by poor Arthur who really was in a state and was planning his own performance to save Merlin even if it meant he'd never see him again. The knights were on his side and even Gaius! Everyone was on Arthur's side, he just needed his father to go to sleep and the prison cells were his to roam as he pleased. He had gone to talk to him earlier and Merlin seemed in shock to say the least – wouldn't anyone falsely accused of magic? Merlin acted strange too, he had some inner conflict going on inside of him (little did he know that Merlin was wondering whether or not to just reveal his magic at his execution or just escape at night). But this story isn't about their bromance or whatever you would like to call it, it's about little mad Uther and his horrible plan.

Uther retired to his chambers, Arthur attempted to save Merlin but was dissuaded by Merlin, Merlin decided he was just going to let Uther kill him – all in all it would've probably made a very interesting angsty episode but we won't dwell on the angst the pair have because it's probably larger than the land of Camelot, and _that's_ large.

Now I know what you're thinking, how _will_ Merlin get out of this mess? But for the sake of this story and what's left of Uther's sanity, let's just say Merlin was suddenly compelled to accept his fate instead of his destiny and just went to sleep.

Morning arrived and with it awoke a mischievous Uther and a crestfallen, tired Arthur who continued to defend Merlin till his execution arrived.

What an execution it could've been. Uther continued to think as he sat down on his throne awaiting Merlin to be brought from the Cells.

And there he was! Looking even paler than ever but held his head high.

If you had been someone from the public, you would've noticed a hooded man within the crowd (a druid no doubt) ready to save Emrys (further proof he was a druid) from death when the time was right – he needn't have worried and should've taken that pint the men at the tavern had offered him a few moments ago. The druid's name was Harold, an interesting druid by a long shot but again, another story perhaps?

Uther grinned his signature smile whenever he was about to do something truly evil. He was proud of this smile - Mainly because he had spent a good amount of time in front of a mirror perfecting it for it _not_ to be good.

As the crowd settled down in anticipation or worry, Uther stood up and walked over to Merlin which caused a great deal of whispers to break out.

"What is he _doing?!_"

"This is new..."

"Oh please let Merlin be ok..."

The last one was Gwen who we all know can be very caring and all that but also a surprisingly good hunter if she was forced to but that would never happen because Gwen is too nice – well, most of the time.

"SILENCE." Uther yelled putting the crowd into a stunned silence.

Uther continued, "This man," He put a hand on Merlin's shoulder, "Has been wrongly accused!"

There were the gasps Uther had been waiting for and once again, he had to hold in the smile inside of him and put on what we would call in the modern day, a poker face.

"This man," He paused for effect, "IS INNOCENT!" and he ordered Merlin to be unlocked from the chains.

"Thank you, sire! Thank you!" Merlin kept repeating before Uther shooed him off to a nearby Arthur and knights who was practically bouncing up and down along with the knights.

Uther turned around and rolled his eyes and walked back up to his chambers.

He wrote a small note and gave it to a passing servant to give to Merlin.

That night once a tipsy Merlin returned from the tavern he had been forced to go to with the knights, Gaius handed him a note and he opened it to reveal two written words:

Fooled you.

* * *

**Who knew Uther would be so much more difficult to write than the knights? That's why this one took so long to come out if any of you pay attention to these merlin one shots I am writing (if not - check out the others!).**

**~Fantaicy**


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